Dennis Lacy

It doesn't get much prettier than this. Outstanding choices in color and especially like the white floor pan. It also looks fantastic with chrome wheels.

This is one of the most fantastic '32 5-Window based projects that I've seen in a long time. The engine set back into the cowl just works and with the car slung low and engine stacked high looks wicked as hell! The chassis fabrication, both in form and function is outstanding. Keeping pushing hard, man, it's gonna be worth it!

There was no issue with how the grill/radiator mounts but there was conversation where Tim (and others, myself included) stated that we felt where Revell chose to put the grill was too far forward and makes the proportions a little wonky, especially on the channeled version which has a radiator that's a scale foot thick. Tim suggested that the radiators could be thinned down (the channeled version substantially) to locate the grill rearward in a more eye-pleasing position.

UPDATE With most of the heavy fab work and changes handled today it was dialing in all the nitty gritty to get ready for paint. I cut down the grill insert to fit the 1/8th" sectioned shell. Hosted on Fotki I cut down a more vintage looking radiator from one of Monogram's old '32 Roadsters and added a fill neck which will get a little chrome cap on it. Hosted on Fotki I couldn't imagine a car like this running a stock gauge panel like the kit provides so I took the dashboard from one of Monogram's old '32 Roadsters and cut out the Stewart Warner 5-gauge panel, thinned it down and will attach to the kit dash. Simple and effective. Hosted on Fotki I drilled the engine block for a Detail Master distributor and the cylinder heads for the wires. Hosted on Fotki I made a basic ignition coil from a section of .060" rod which has a .040" mounting pin inserted through the side and fits into a corresponding hole I drilled into the firewall. Hosted on Fotki I decided to cut the wheel wells away from the interior panels and permanently attach them to body to cut down on masking operations during painting. Hosted on Fotki To go along with the dual purpose look of the car I decided to add this chrome roll bar. I drilled the ends of the bar and inserted .040" rod for mounting pins. It was very typical for a roll bar to pass through the body's tulip panel and extend down to the floor/frame. Hosted on Fotki Lastly, a "yard sale" view of everything ready for paint. Hosted on Fotki

That bomber style bench seat is FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC!

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. I'm having some serious fun with this. Haha, no, I don't label any of my boxes but pretty much every kit that I have is missing parts. Believe it or not I'm a weirdo and generally remember what each one is missing. If I have multiple copies of the same kit and they're all missing parts at some point I'll consolidate them all to one box and throw out the parts I'll truly never use. (I can't tell you how many sets of Revell '32 fenders I've tossed, LOL!) I also made a rule for myself that any part I need from any kit I just take it and use it. It doesn't matter if it's a mint 60's kit or a current issue. I'm way past building anything box-stock so they're all organ donors. I would love to see you do a Purple People Eater! I've seen that rod run down the drag strip quite a few times. It's wicked cool.

Have you ever sat down at your workbench with the intention of working on a particular project only start an all-new project that you hadn't even planned on? Well, this is one of those! This funky little thing is gonna be an early 60's show rod that could also be a drag strip car. Kind of in the vein of the Orange Crate '32 Sedan that was a show rod first but did run down a couple of drag strips to prove that it could. The stance and "tallness" of it also kind of reminds me of that goofy Uncertain T show rod except this one won't look like a leaning barn after a tornado. The frame started out as the custom hot rod frame found in all of AMT's double T kits. Taking a second frame, I stacked the second rear portion on top of the first to make the "Z" taller and lower the back. I also stacked the second front spring perch on top of the first to make it taller and drop the front. Hosted on Fotki The Chevy engine block is from the new(ish) Monogram Slingster dragster kit. I cut off the molded on clutch housing and oil pan. The chrome bell housing/trans adapter is from the recently reissued AMT Chevy parts pack engine. The early flat head Ford 3-speed trans was cut off of the optional Dodge Red Ram hemi in AMT's '29 Roadster and the trans cross member is the corresponding part, also from the AMT '29 and cut down to fit the T frame. The tubular member behind that with the trailing arm mounts is cut down from Revell's '40 Ford street rods (coupe/convertible.) The front engine mounts are shaped from rectangle plastic rod. Hosted on Fotki The front axle is from the Revell '32 Fords with new end pins to mount the spindle-mount 12-spokes, also from the Slingster dragster. I added an upper steering link hoop made out of a cut down A arm for a future side steering link coming off of the cowl. The hairpin radius rods are from Revell's '32 5-Window pinned to the frame rails. The plain, chopped radiator shell is out of AMT's recently reissued Competition T Roadster parts pack body and I made a filler panel from .040" sheet plastic since the car will have no cooling system. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The Halibrand quick change center section and axle tubes are from the '25 double T kits with the end cover plate from AMT's '41 Woody street rod. I made the spring hangers from .040" sheet plastic and the 25 T kit spring and shocks mount to it as they would out of the box. I did this because the kit spring mounts are part of the puny drum brakes and split wishbones that are all one piece. This will have ladder bars mounted to the axle tubes inside the frame and I wanted better brake detail. The '39-'48 Ford brake plates, wheels and slicks are all from Monograms "Blue Bandito" '29 Roadster Pickup kit. Hosted on Fotki The body still needs to be trimmed around the axle in the back and a little shave around the engine on the firewall then it will come down channeled the thickness of the frame. I just love that purple glass! The car will be finished in a pearl white and lavender theme. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Stay tuned...

Looking good so far, Brad!

Beautiful start to your '29 Roadster, Paul! That shade of blue is awesome. I trimmed my front spring exactly the same way and replaced the front cross member with a much flatter one from the Revell 32's. Did you do anything to drop the back or leave as-is?

You mean instead of a $50 dollar Hayden fan off the shelf from Pepboys with those awesome through-ties rammed through the radiator core to hold it on?

The stance and proportions look really good, Chris! Nice fab work and the engine looks awesome, too. It has already been done a bunch on the Ford 4.6 DOHC (which is what the models engine is) engines although typically there are 8 throttle bodies and at first glance they look like a 4 - Weber setup. The same is also available for the more current Coyote DOHC engines. That said, with the tuning capabilities available today there's no reason a 6 throttle body arrangement couldn't be made to work, especially sharing a common air plenum.

An electric fan would look like poop on this car.

Tim, I considered grafting the outer parts of the kit axle tubes to the tapered axle housings but found that the size discrepancy where the two would need to join would leave a noticeable step. This way was pretty easy, really. With the rear lowered 1/16th" the Revell '32 series coil overs are the perfect length, just have to drill a hole for the upper mount pins. I would have changed them anyway because the '29 kit coil overs look too fat. If I had not lowered the back of the car first I probably could have gotten away with doing nothing in the front, kinda painted myself into a corner. Now that it's all done I'm glad I did it because I'm really happy with the stance. I can't wait to see your A-framed '29 hiboy!

Inner structure and "metal" work look great!

Glad I could shed some positive light on the modern Ala Kart for you!

Thanks, Tim! I would love to attend one of the Legendary NNL's back there but I'm stuck out here on the lower left coast. Oh! Well, in that case I completely agree!

While the modern tooled Ala Kart has it's short comings (like the engine being, literally, too short) it does have good value as a parts donor for the hot rod kit basher. For instance, the excellent set of big & little whitewalls tires, chrome/reverse wheels and brakes. The beam axle has a healthy drop and if one doesn't like the air spring suspension a conventional spring can be glued on top of it (the stock axle spring from the original AMT '29 Roadster kit fits quite nice and is pretty flat for setting the front end LOW). And, while the engine (and therefor heads/valve covers/intakes) is too short the front cover/water pump, belt drive, generator and fan are scaled well and can be glued to the front of the Dodge Red Ram in the original AMT '29 Roadster kit which (except for the Ala Kart double kits) comes with a competition only blower setup. This lets you build a streetable version of the Dodge Red Ram! The picture below shows the modern Ala Kart engine front drive parts attached to the original '29 Roadster Dodge Red Ram engine. Also shown is the modern Ala Kart front axle fitted with the spring from the stock axle in the AMT original '29 and the modern Ala Kart front wheels, tires and brakes. Hosted on Fotki The finished model also uses the modern Ala Kart rear wheels & tires and the custom taillights. On this model the wheel chrome was stripped off and they were painted with hubcaps from the AMT '53 Ford Truck. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki The picture below shows a Lindberg '34 Ford Pickup frame modified with the full modern Ala Kart suspension. The only thing I changed was deleting the rear torque tube and radius rods for short trailing arms and a live drive shaft. Hosted on Fotki Same chassis as a roller also using the modern Ala Kart wheels, tires and brakes. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki Same model finished. Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki So you see, the modern Ala Kart definitely has redeeming value!

Fantastic motor mount cross member. Split radius rods look good, too. Very interesting supercharger setup. Looks like it's cam driven? The air intake plenum on the front of the SC would look neat reshaped a bit with a (left to right) row of two-barrels across it.

Not only was the first '50 Pickup ARDUN head setup shaped and sized wrong, the engine also used a standard flathead intake manifold which is completely wrong as the ARDUN heads have their own intake ports and require a custom manifold. It also requires a separate flat valley plate to cover where the original intake manifold would go. It's still not enough under size to work on a V860 engine.

It's not an ideal situation but, yes, a torque tube would take care of the axle rotation issue. Typically, if using trailing arms with a torque tube they have to be the same length of the tube and the front pivot points of the trailing arms have to be exactly aligned (front/back) with the attachment/pivot point on the back of the transmission or serious binding will happen as all three move up and down and try to swing through different arcs. The better idea would be to fabricate some new diagonal rear rods that come off of the existing axle brackets and attach at the same point on the torque tube, like Ford's original design. In that design the rods purpose is brace the axle tubes. Luckily, we're only building models here and there's some leeway.

Both would be fine, too. It's just that every modern-tool hot rod or custom kit that Revell offers with multiple 2-barrel carburetion has the same old helmet or bell shaped air filters. The one exception being the ARDUN converted flathead engine in the '50 Ford truck which has three Holley "94" carbs with molded on straight, angle cut tubes. The curved air scoops are incredibly popular on full scale traditional hot rods.

The 2nd attempt at proportion looks really good to me including the often hard to get right overhead view. I also like the very subtle forward rake. Looks like about an inch difference if this were a 1:1 scale car. Not a fan, at ll, of the stink bug stance some hot rods have. One of the things I think a lot of people get wrong on low slung cars like this is a stupidly long wheel base. The radiator shell/grill should be no further forward than it needs to be for engine clearance and the axle should be a half foot or less in front of the grill (basically the room that is required for a cross member tube and spring perch. Some cars have the front axle a foot + ahead of the grill and it just looks dumb. Carry on!